


Firewhiskey and Friendship

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drinking, Drinking & Talking, Hogwarts Eighth Year, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-07 04:13:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16401104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: Harry learns a lot his eighth year, and not all in the classroom.





	Firewhiskey and Friendship

**Author's Note:**

  * For [julianbashir](https://archiveofourown.org/users/julianbashir/gifts).



As he took one last look around his room, double checking that everything was in his trunk, Harry couldn’t help but sigh. He had enjoyed this year, despite himself. With McGonagall running the school, as disloyal to Dumbledore’s memory as it felt to think it, Harry had actually had his best year. There were no plots, no attacks, no Dark Lords, and no sneering teachers.

The eleven students who had come back for their eighth year had attended the normal classes with the seventh years, but had their own small dorm to live in. To Harry’s surprise, he had talked more to people in other Houses this year than in the entire rest of his Hogwarts career. He had thought he would miss the Gryffindor Common Room, but being stared at and treated like a savior had gotten old the first week, and he found himself hiding in the eighth year’s Common instead.

To his surprise, the three Slytherins also tended to stay in, and Harry found himself (Merlin-forbid) becoming friends with them! It started with Blaise Zabini, as they were assigned a Charms project together. Somehow that progressed from studying together to sprawling on the floor in front of the fire at two AM with Daphne Greengrass and Justin Finch-Fletchley, doing Firewhiskey shots and bitching about the war.

Harry had, to his shame, never realized that there were neutral Slytherins; those who had to keep their own heads down around the Inquisitorial Squad, or to feign illnesses like Ron’s to avoid being Marked or forced to fight. It was a revelation that took him several weeks to readjust his world view over.

That one night, however, lead to others, and even Hermione was convinced to take the occasional night off and loosen up. The others were obviously interested in what she and Harry had done in the war, and she was far better at telling the stories than Harry. It became a weekly ritual for the eighth years, on Saturday nights, to put aside their homework and just hang out together.

All but one.

Harry had been very drunk that night, and just as put out that Draco Malfoy never joined the rest of their small House in this ritual. That night, with the first snow falling outside and the fire crackling merrily inside, a very drunk Harry had taken it into his head that Draco just had to join them, one way or another.

The resulting fight was spectacular, and they never did managed to get one patch of ceiling back to quite the right color, but in the end Draco had sat wedged between Harry and Blaise, drunk and crying as he told them his story. He was the only one in their group to have actually taken the Dark Mark, but that night Harry realized that not all Death Eaters were created equal. He wondered, laying on his own bed that night, if living with the Dursleys hadn’t been a bit better, in comparison, to growing up the son of Lucius Malfoy.

That night was the first that Draco participated, and by spring Harry realized that he hadn’t called him Malfoy in weeks. None of them used last names, anymore, come to that. But with Draco, it was different.

Not surprisingly, it took alcohol and bad weather again, though this time it was Harry being loosened up by the pouring rain and the freely flowing libations. The kiss, when it happened, was nothing like he had fantasized about, but Draco also didn’t push him away and either curse him or run from the room, so Harry counted it as a win.

Now, a year after they had been on opposite sides of a battle, Harry was packing his trunk to move into a flat with Draco, Hermione, and Daphne. Now, instead of fighting and destroying, Harry was going to try building instead, having discovered a whole fascinating field of magical architecture in the last few months. Now, instead of a death sentence hanging over his head, Harry had a boyfriend hovering behind him and grousing about being late to breakfast.

Seeing nothing left behind, Harry turned from his room, linked arms with Draco, and left his Hogwarts dorm for the last time. Not for the last time, he thought, thank Merlin Hermione had talked him into coming back for his last year!


End file.
